Medical Statistics

Medical Statistics

MSc,
1-3 years, full- or part-time

This is for you if... you want a vocational course that will focus on the application of statistical methods to real-life problems in medicine and healthcare, giving you excellent prospects in securing a career or further study.

Course Description

This postgraduate degree will give you all the expertise you need to become a practising medical statistician. You will cover all relevant theory but with an emphasis on understanding, applying and adapting it to real-life circumstances. Your analysis skills will be developed on real medical data sets, using statistical software such as Stata, SAS and WinBUGS.

You will have the option to specialise, if you want to, in either Modern Epidemiology (including Genetic Epidemiology) or Health Technology Assessment.

An important factor in the success of a practising statistician is the ability to communicate with others. To develop these skills, you will work on two mini-projects and will be introduced to consultancy skills throughout the course. The mini-projects involve analysing data arising from real problems and data sets and presenting a report on the findings.

Why Leicester?

The University of Leicester Department of Health Sciences is engaged in internationally competitive research across a wide range of topics, including epidemiology, medical statistics, public health, primary care, health services research, and psychiatry.

The Department of Health Sciences at Leicester has approximately 140 academic, research, teaching, and support staff and around 100 taught postgraduate students.

Option modules

Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.

Project

Project

You will undertake a major 12-week project during the summer, usually based on analysis of real medical data or methodology in the area of medical statistics.

Examples of previous projects include:

Analysis and modelling of road traffic accident data

The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of hot water temperature controls for the prevention of scalds in children aged 0-4 years

Individual patient data meta-analysis in diabetes

Predictors of GP consultation in older people with joint pain

Survival of women with endometrial cancer

Meta-analysis of the toxicological evidence concerning the health effects of fluoride

Odds ratios vs relative risks in a study of 30 day mortality after myocardial infarction

Hierarchical modelling of measurement errors in banked biosamples

Measurement of psychological health among adolescents in south-west England

Quality of diabetes care in high and low socio-economic groups in a multi-ethnic population.

Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.

Additional Information

Accreditation

This course is accredited by the Royal Statistical Society. On graduation you will be able to apply for the professional award of Graduate Statistician.

Teaching and Assessment

Each module is taught in a week-long blocks using a variety of lectures, seminars and computer practicals, including sessions delivered by external practising medical statisticians. In between these teaching weeks you will complete the course work from the previous teaching weeks and start your preliminary reading for the next one.

Assessment is by coursework and exam. Many modules have an assessed coursework element involving the analysis of a real medical data set and the production of a concise written report. There are also mathematical and statistical computing-based courseworks.

It is possible to study for this MSc part-time. As a part-time student you would complete the taught modules over two academic years, attending approximately seven one-week blocks per year. You would then complete your project over the next six months.

Entry Requirements

The course is intended mainly for students with a good honours degree of which mathematics/statistics is the main subject, and with a working knowledge of basic probability and statistics. However, applicants with other suitable backgrounds will be considered by the course team. If you wish to discuss your background please contact the Admissions Tutor on mscmedstats@le.ac.uk

Fees and Funding

Starting in September 2017

£7,500

Starting in September 2018

£7,835

Deposit

Due to limited places on our medical sciences, biosciences and psychology courses, if you (or your family) are funding your studies, you will need to pay a deposit of £750 within four weeks of accepting your offer. This will be subtracted from your first tuition fee instalment. You may not need to pay a deposit if you can provide evidence that you are:

Previously, studentships for this degree have been awarded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Pharmaceutical funding for this course has in previous years been received from Amgen and the non-profit organisation PSI.

Did you know you can apply for a Postgraduate Loan of up to £10,000, subject to eligibility?

This is the total course fee.

Starting in September 2017

£14,740

Starting in September 2018

£15,405

Deposit

Due to limited places on our medical sciences, biosciences and psychology courses, if you (or your family) are funding your studies, you will need to pay a deposit of £1,500 within four weeks of accepting your offer. This will be subtracted from your first tuition fee instalment. You may not need to pay a deposit if you can provide evidence that you are:

Career Opportunities

The demand for medical statisticians is high and many employers contact us with job opportunities and to give careers talks to try to recruit graduates. For further information about a career in medical/pharmaceutical statistics please look at:

Careers

Our Career Development Service is here to support you, with advice on interviews, CVs, work experience, volunteering and more. From Freshers’ Week to Graduation and beyond, they are here to help you reach your professional goals.